1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer software, particularly for use in wide area networks, including the Internet.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet worldwide web is an international electronic network comprising a vast number of interconnected electronic sites using common communication protocols. The architecture of the worldwide web (simply, "web") includes the use of web "pages" at a site to provide text, graphical, audio, and video information to users accessing that site. Selectable information is typically indicated by means of text or graphical images (e.g., icons or bitmapped images) which are associated with remote address pointers known as Universal Resource Locators (URL's), typically having the following form: "http://www.adobe.com".
Selection of text, an icon, or an image having a URL causes the user's program to access the web page designated by the URL. In addition, objects (e.g., data files, images, video clips, etc.) within a web page can also be assigned URL's, such that selection of the associated text, icon, or image causes the object to be transferred (downloaded) to the user's computer for playback or storage.
Modern "electronic documents" comprise text, format and control codes, and embedded objects, such as figures (e.g., vector or bitmapped graphics images), audio clips, and/or video clips. In addition, some documents (for example, documents produced in WordPerfect 6.1 from Corel Corporation of Ontario, Canada) may include "hypertext" or "hyperlinks". Hyperlinks are areas in a document containing pointer information that a user can select (e.g., by "clicking" with a pointer device, such as a mouse), causing the current application (e.g., wordprocessor, spreadsheet, etc.) to "jump" to a new document or a different location in the current document.
The present invention is directed at extending the concept of hyperlinks to include URL's, and includes a convenient, easy to use method of creating URL hyperlinks.